Jorge Luis Borges - The Last Interview

problem is that you and I aren’t Guaraní Indians or Charrua Indians, we have no right to be here, of course.
    LÓPEZ LECUBE: Working hard …
    BORGES: Working hard …
    LÓPEZ LECUBE: And at zero, as you just said.
    BORGES: Many thanks.
    3 A slang word for “frustration” or “anger.”
    4 Buenos Aires slang invented primarily by tango writers and singers in Buenos Aires in the first half of the twentieth century.
    5 Salta is a province in northern Argentina.
    6 From Corrientes, another province in Argentina.
    7 Borges says “tiniebla” while the poem actually reads “penumbra.”
    8 In 1874, Bartolomé Mitre, a prominent liberal general and politician, led a short-lived revolution that ended with defeat in the battle of La Verde and surrender of his army on December 3, 1874.
    9 Leopoldo Lugones (1874–1938), Argentine poet.
    10 Paul-François Groussac (1848–1929), Franco-Argentine writer, historian and literary critic.
    11 Arturo Capdevila (1889–1967), Argentine poet and writer.
    12 Baldomero Fernández Moreno (1886–1950), Argentine poet.
    13 The pen name of Pedro Bonifacio Palacios (1854–1917), Argentine poet and doctor.
    14 “I was driven delirious with hunger for many days and many nights I couldn’t sleep for the cold / to defend God from reproach for human hunger and his cold nights.”
    15 The verse actually reads: “
(Si los lacedemonios al combate iban a son de trompa o son de flauta / si en diez mil dracmas cotizó Corinto la noche de Lais, la cortesana.)
” “(If the Laconians sallied forth into combat to the rhythm of the horn or the flute / if Lais, the courtesan, priced Corinth at ten thousand drachmas.)”
    16 Human rights groups who campaigned for the release of political prisoners and the end to torture and killings during the dictatorship.
    17 Alicia Moreau de Justo (1885–1986), Argentine politician and one of the country’s first female doctors.
    18 A neighborhood in Buenos Aires.
    19 “Compadrito” is a
lunfardo
term for “street-kid” or “scoundrel.”
    20 A wealthy neighborhood in Buenos Aires with a famous cemetery.
    21 Juan Manuel de Rosas (1793–1877), Argentine dictator.
    22 The Unitarian Party was a liberal political party, opposed throughout the nineteenth century by the Federal party.
    23 Between 1843 and 1851, Montevideo was put under siege by the Blanco party led by General Manuel Oribe.
    24 Retiro is a train station and railway terminal in Buenos Aires.
    25 Xul Solar (1887–1963), Argentine artist.
    26 A clock tower in Retiro, Buenos Aires. It was a gift to Argentina from the British government to celebrate the nation’s centenary.
    27 Borges is referring to the former Argentine president Juan Domingo Perón (1895–1974), whose government he fiercely opposed in the 1940s and ’50s. In 1973, Perón returned from exile in Spain, to take control of the government once more and Borges resigned his post at the National Library. Cangallo is a major street in Buenos Aires that was renamed Juan Domingo Perón and then changed back after his government fell.
    28 Silvia Bullrich (1915–1990), Argentine writer.

JORGE LUIS BORGES (1899–1986) was an Argentine author, essayist, poet, translator, lecturer, and librarian who gained worldwide recognition after receiving, in 1961, the first International Publishers Prize, which he shared with Samuel Beckett. Borges wrote innovative fiction combining the fantastic, and is best known for the short-story collections
Ficciones
(1944) and
The Aleph
(1949). He died in Geneva in 1986.
    RICHARD BURGIN , the editor of the literary magazine
Boulevard
and the winner of five Pushcart Prizes for his stories, is the author of sixteen books, including two novels, nine collections of stories, and two books of nonfiction,
Conversations with Isaac Bashevis Singer
and
Conversations with Jorge Luis Borges
.
    DANIEL BOURNE has edited
Artful Dodge
since its inception in 1979. His books of poetry include
The Household Gods
and
Where No One Spoke the Language
. He teaches English at the College of Wooster.
    STEPHEN CAPE (1953–2010) was a longtime cataloger of rare books at the Lilly Library at Indiana University. He was also the poetry editor for
Artful Dodge
during the early 1980s.
    CHARLES SILVER is a visual artist and former editor of
Artful Dodge
.
    GLORIA LÓPEZ LECUBE was born in Buenos Aires. She has worked as a journalist in print, radio, and television, and also managed two radio stations. She interviewed Borges in 1985, just